The application of SERCON (System for Evaluating Rivers for Conservation) to a selection of rivers in Britain

✍ Scribed by P.J. Boon; J. Wilkinson; J. Martin

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 463 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-7613
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0755(199807/08)8:4<597::aid-aqc277>3.0.co;2-n

✦ Synopsis

1. SERCON is a technique for assessing the conservation value of rivers using criteria such as naturalness, physical diversity and species richness. The system may be used with reference to a printed manual or as a computer application. SERCON Version 1 was used for the first time during 1995-1996 to evaluate 73 'Evaluated Catchment Sections' (ECSs) along 17 rivers in Britain.

2. Data on the physical features of rivers and their corridors were obtained in two ways. For rivers in Scotland, detailed field surveys were carried out along the entire length of each watercourse, whereas for rivers in England and Wales physical data were derived from pre-existing River Habitat Survey (RHS) forms, and to a lesser extent from River Corridor Survey maps.

3. Data for assessing the other attributes in SERCON were gathered from a wide range of sources. On average, data were available for 86% of the 46 SERCON attributes. Data quality was variable, with the highest confidence attached to attributes assessed by field survey, and the lowest to attributes where species data were sparse.

4. A synopsis of the results for two large rivers in north-east Scotland -the Dee and the Don-is presented as an illustrative case study. Although both rivers are of a comparable size and lie in adjacent catchments, the conservation value of the River Dee has generally been considered far higher than that of the River Don. Although water quality and catchment naturalness are higher in the Dee than the Don, the difference in SERCON conservation indices is less marked. In general, indices for Physical Diversity are higher in the Dee, but those for criteria such as Naturalness and Representativeness are similar for both rivers.

5. This paper illustrates that SERCON is potentially a valuable tool for strategic river management, and also marks the first phase in establishing a national SERCON database.